For the Devil to Dance Again
by Frigid Waters
Summary: How far would you fall if you lost everything and how far would you go to get it back? (Yes this is a rewrite)
1. Chapter 1

For The Devil To Dance Again (the rewrite)

AU

It all takes place in my own convoluted rehashed view of the Once universe. Yes I did a complete rewrite. It's rated M for many reasons, torture, language, sexual encounters and character death.

Emma and Regina are in an established relationship.

This is by no means a sweet romantic fluff piece, there will be angst and maybe even tears as it progresses if I manage to write it correctly, so in advance, I'm sorry... but not really cause if you're mad at me then you skipped the warnings, so it's on you.

There is MAJOR character death and torture, though I have no intention of going into vivid detail in that regard. This will, by far be the darkest piece I have written to date though if I throw many more warnings in you'll know the plot before you even get through the first chapter so...Imagine just about every warning, that way all the bases are covered and the plot will be a surprise.

I own nothing and I think that's all, so enjoy. (Updates should fall every week or so)

##

Chapter 1

The dampness, it seeps and clings to my body like falling rain. The frigid tendrils of mist creeping ever deeper and hungrily sucking what warmth I still possess.

To my core I feel its grasp reaching, scavenging ever further as my numb and worn fingertips ease the glacial metal restraints from their entrenching hold of my wrists. Inching the biting metal higher along my forearms in desperation as I attempt to massage both feeling and blood back into sore bone and torn flesh. I can't help but think over the path that led me here to this pit, the very same path that I am unable to damn since it led me to 'her'.

Here within the vermin infested underground doubt has no place within my clouding mind. Among the whispered voices calling to me in the darkness, I stand beside my convictions. 'Was she worth this?' they ask without tact, what feels like a hundred times over in a cacophony of dirty sounds. And a hundred times more I always answer 'Yes', screaming it at times if I am so moved. It would seem that even the darkest pits can not tarnished the moments she and I had shared. So I hold strong and tightly onto what of her remains; she was and is my heaven, my sanctuary in the light-less dawn that is upon me. With every breath I hold onto that, she was worth this and so much more.

She is worth my soul... and moreover she is worth theirs.

##

The surrounding silence covers everything except my breathing and the irregular drips of putrid water falling from the ceiling. Sitting here among the stench of stale air and stagnant darkness I have little more then the groaning of the woman in the hole next to me, the shadows and my memories to keep me company. Somehow I can't fathom this stranger's alleged crimes being able to rival my own. Nothing seems able to trump treason and evil after all.

"I have some water left," the rough voice of the occupant in the cell next to me beckons within the darkness. Her bony hand extending a beaten cup towards my general direction through the bars, blindly offering more than just the water either inadvertently or not.

"You'll do best to save what little they offer you." I respond, my voice curt and gruff in tone. A stranger am I after all to such acts of generosity now. Shying away from both this cursed woman and the world I was once so happy to be a part of. Nothing, I have learned, is ever given without a cost, just as everything can be taken without a single reason.

"I fear what kindness they offer me wont be extended to you your Grace." The woman's voice raspy from a lack of use.

The simple fact of her knowing my identity seemed to ease the burden only slightly, much like a grain of sand blowing off into the wind. "No, I'm sure it wont be." I smirk in contempt, long gone is any sustainable hope or belief in fair justice being given to me. My reality resting it's weight all to firmly upon my shoulders. I am the damned after all, I am the one they now fear the most, I am the tempest they can not control, I am the force they can never fathom.

I am their darkness.

"Then you would do best to take it..." The edge to the stranger's words reminding me of the ire I could elicit from 'her' on the best of days. She reminded me of the cheeky retorts and loving banter of my late Love.

"Why? You know nothing of me." I counter, anger flaring up instantly within me at her arrogance and demand, this woman was not my wife, and yet she dared to say such words. I am nothing if not short tempered as of late.

"I know more than most." There was a strength behind her boast in its utterance, it hinted to her being more than what she appeared. That fact alone held true among many in this land, even a child naked with vulnerability was more than they generally appeared.

Her words raising the hairs of my neck. "And what do you know of me?"

"I know your past. I know your path..." The woman trailed off.

"Ha," I bark back. "My path is known to many," I breath. "It would be to the hangman's noose or the archer's target where it possible to kill me. "

The silence passing on for heartbeats till she spoke again."It wasn't always, now was it Savior?"

"No, it certainly was not." I mumble unfettered. The flash of eternally deep brown eyes ghosting across my mind. The warm flutter of sun kissed skin haunting my fingertips as the briefest hint of a summer like scent taunted my lungs. I missed her, like the arid desserts missed the living force of rain.

"You love her still." I could not tell if the woman's words were a question or a statement of fact, all I felt was anger at the doubt of their intent.

"I'll love her always!" My tone was harsh as I rose in defense, the chains around my limbs flexing to their limits but not giving even the barest hint of breaking as my tone filled the echoing chamber. Growling as the blood within my veins seemed to catch light and sing from the rage, "You know nothing but common gossip." I hear her slinking back within her cell at my ire. The edges of my anger not fully capable of expanding beyond the confines of my body, so I vent the rage by closing in, lowering my mass, shackles and all to the floor along the darkest wall. Ensuring that none of the dismal light cast by the flickering torches reaches my skin. It is here I've found, rocking within the midnight silence of this pit they have cast me in, that I find the most peace of late. It is here, among the shadows and darkness, that I find it easiest to remember her smile and with it the rampant rage within begins to calm once more. The bite of the enchanted metal draining the venom from my heart until I can hear her voice again.

Her calm tone floating to my ears within the silence._ 'Ease your heart my love, it's beat betrays you.' _The notes of sensuality wrapping around me.

"How am I to do that when your beauty ensnares me?_" _I counter in the close quarters, my back pressing deeply into the wall, I respond though not much louder than a whisper, too afraid am I to even open my eyes lest I break the fragile moment.

Her slender fingers pressing along my chest till the flat of her palm stills above my racing heart._ 'Then let my lips distract you from the torment of my beauty.' _Time seems to slow to a halt, I can hear her sly grin within her words as my fingers entwining with hers upon my chest as I breath her in deeply.

"From one torment to another my Love.." I whisper as she bring her delicate lips to press lightly upon my own for but a moment.

_'From this too I am sure you'll survive.' _Again the amber tones of her voice sooth my aching soul, taming the violence that lurks within.

"I'm not so sure..." The doubt was blatant and raw in my voice, for her alone am I so open and bare. "...I miss you," I utter as I feel a treacherous tear burn itself a trail across my dirtied flesh. It's purity quickly polluted by the grime I am covered in till its weight could bare to move no further.

##

I know some of you probably prefer the original, however that is not the path this story took...sorry.

-Frigid


	2. Chapter 2

For the Devil to Dance Again (the rewrite)

Chapter 2

Rest was never an easy task to master at any point in my life, least of all now. Constant is the craving within, the hunger of a restless beast circling it's prey. I want to make each and every soul pay for their part, no matter how small, of her absence and persecution. She was the innocent, the light in all of this. She was and is my everything.

My lucidity it seems, comes and goes with my sanity. I am aware that she isn't with me in my moments of coherence, but still I long for the madness. I long for the walks amongst the fog in her company, it is those moments of haze that I live for.

I can hear them whisper in the darkness, I know what they say about my mental state, just as I know that it scares them.

But I want her back.

If only I was faster, if only I had been the one to bare the blow, if only I had been in the blades path. If only I had changed one small thing...

If only... the possibilities endless as I think of every variance. Choreographing every outcome in detail.

If only it had been me...

If only the blade had pierced my heart, instead of slicing it in two.

They will pay, of that I am sure. I promise you my Love, they will pay...

##

"They come for you your Highness." The woman breathes, "Hide what you are capable of... Hide what you are... Hide who and what you see." The woman's words fades quickly as though nothing was ever spoken.

"Let them come." I utter as I square my shoulders and breath deeply. "Let the sky fall at their feet, for I shall not beg and I shall not weep."

"Get up!" The cocky head of the guard sent to clear the approach yells, his confidence growing as he takes in my appearance coming to a stop on the safe side of the bars. Half naked and bruised am I with trickles of fresh blood coursing down my flesh, I seem like little of a threat to him. I can feel his eyes roaming my chest and loins and I can hear his thoughts; such a vile creature he is. I know he dare not touch me today, his ego isn't boastful enough yet to act on his urges but that day will come soon enough.

I can see into his shadowed mind as he stands there, to the ill of his intent and I relish the surge of sweet darkness he offers. He will be easy to play with, but not today...

No, not today.

Today, I greet the Lords of the surrounding kingdoms. So high upon their thrones do they sit that I relish their fall. So brittle is their constitutions that they shall crumble beneath my feet, in time... yes in time.

But they must come to me, here in the darkness that clothes me.

I can hear their leather bound feet long before the guards, I laugh as the soldiers tighten rank and stand at further attention as the entourage of Kings make their way down the corridor. Such sheep...they follow the daft to slaughter.

"My what a surprise," I mutter, still clothed within the semi darkness, my face as yet unseen. "Had I known you all were coming I would have dressed the part for you. Maybe even requested a chair or two, some tea perhaps..." The disgust dripping from my words.

The first to take my bait is King George, such an unscrupulous and arrogant man. How his blood ran red instead of black I did not know. "Silence you abomination," he bellows.

Pitching my gaze to him I let the flickers of light catch my eyes as i step forward. Smiling as he breathes quickly, stopping himself from leaning back in shock as the green of my eyes flash and change to a fiery silver. I can feel a slight tingle as the magic within awakens before coursing through my veins like a tidal wave. "Abomination? Me?" I bring a hand to my chest, feigning hurt before releasing a sneer. "I am not the monster between us. I am not the one with a secret to hide...I know your nature your 'Highness'." I all but spit the last word, let the liar sweat like the swine he devours.

"Emma," another man beckons, stealing my attention. His voice I know; there among those I thought I once knew: the very same people whom watched me grow. "Don't be like this Emma, we're here to help you not hurt you." His blue eyes where open and honest, much like I remember them being as a child growing up. He was ever my champion in my youth, forever rescuing me from imaginary dragons and fantastical ogres within our castles walls. But where was he when I needed him the most, when the imaginary monsters took shape and form, when the fantastical was shed. Where was he, when I learned that evil truly roamed and wore the face of men? No the man I thought I knew was gone, before me stood a stranger, smaller in both heart and stature than his memory.

"You want to help me?" I gave them a moment of silence as I met all their gazes, more to rally myself and stand taller with his words still echoing than for any real regard for their answers. "Where were you when I asked for your help? Where were you when I needed you? Where were you when she needed you?"My lip curling with my last words.

"Emma, we tried..." His forthcoming lies and excuses seemed to shrink him further.

I cut him off there, silencing his dishonesty and corruption. "No, you were in your war rooms, sitting upon your thrones. You were hiding behind advisers, all the while waiting and planning, planning and waiting..." I seemed to loose myself in the onslaught of anger within, it's strength blinding.

"Emma." He called out softly.

I tilt my head, awaiting the reality of what I was doing to return, I continued when I found my lost train of thought. "When she needed me I was there!" I shout, "but when I needed you, you were waiting... calculating the possible losses and bedding your whores!" The last part clearly aimed at King George as I articulated my head to meet his stare.

"We had the kingdoms to.." Another man interrupts.

"You had nothing to consider! I asked, I begged... and for nothing! You left me no choice, I stood alone at her side and I would do it again. I stood alone with my bride and fought not just for her, but for us all..."

"We didn't want that to happen. If there had been anything we could..." Another Royal butts in, Alexander with his pretty boy pomp, his diplomatic words baring no weight of truth, his utterances only fueling my rage further.

"There was plenty you could have done. I asked for so little," I paused meeting the White King's gaze once more. "But because of her blood you had to wait and convene... you had to weigh the cost of her life."

"No it wasn't..." He refuted quickly.

"Do not lie to me!" I seethe. Looking to each of the other men. "Phillip, I stood and bled with you for your love against that witch and I asked you for nothing in return except your word that you would come should I call upon you." Turning back to King George, "You asked for aid when your coffers were bare and your people were starving, we fed you and gifted you. Yet silent you stood and here you are before me, my would be executioner." My eyes returning to the blonde King, to my father. "Was I not just in my convictions to our kingdom, was I not righteous on the field of battle in defense for both our people under a joined banner? Did I not slay the threats that crept to our borders? And was I not a just and fair Queen when we ruled our kingdom together her and I?" His eyes could meet mine no longer. "I was everything you raised me to be and more...yet still you did not come. I expected more from you, so your fate is of little concern to me as I morn and bide my time in your regret. The darkness that creeps will not hurt me and the innocent shall not feel it's wrath for I have seen to that," I paused then, letting my words seep in. "But you will," I continue, locking eyes with all the would be Kings before me, "You will feel loss just as I do."

"How dare you threaten us!" King George erupts, his chest swelling with ill-gotten pride.

"How dare you commit treason against My Kingdom and stand there to judge the fallout." I counter, growing tired of the postulating. "We all took an oath or have you forgotten?"

"I have not..." The words of the eldest King, Midas, sounded softly among my shouts. He said no more in his somber tone, merely standing there, a vacant vessel. His regret ran the deepest. I could see past his flesh and robes deep into his heart, I knew he had been the sole voice of action among a crowd of cowards. _'The kingdom of gold shall remain absolved' _I called out to the shadows. For though in my weakened and bound state I could do little magic, the shadows knew I would be free one day and obedience was a small price to pay for them till then.

"We didn't know what to do.." Alexander utters softly as though not really believing the words himself.

"But you certainly knew what to do with me when the smoke had cleared and the fires had all burnt out. Didn't you? Your fairies certainly came through for the lot of you then, I sneered. "Such dears are they, gracing me with these delicate accessories." I gesture to my shackles, both those around my hands and feet. "Just as I'm sure this one was your idea wasn't it Grandfather?" I question as I pull on the chain lead bound to the ringed collar of metal around my neck. "It seems of your design, of your taste..."

"We had to bind your powers Emma," Alexander begins, "The blood letting...We had to protect our..."

_Lies_, the word echoing within my mind. "I think the word you're looking for is 'yourselves'." My lips dripping with disgust.

"Emma," my father entreats once more, stepping forward from those around him. "I'm sorry..."

Turning my back on him, just as he had done to me, I walk back into the darkness of my new home, not letting the man I held of the highest esteem see the fresh trail of shimmering crimson track it's way down my palms and fingertips. "So am I Father..." The enchanted bindings biting deeper and absorbing the powers churning within, sensing the influx of magic from within, sensing the anger.

I could feel their eyes seeking me out in the darkness, just as I could hear their pleads for mercy and lenience. But I dare not care to speak any longer, I had said all I wished to at that moment.

Let the sky fall down around them and may their brittle bones break.

##


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

"Are you really going to do nothing?" The faceless woman asks.

I wanted no part in this conversation, I was more than content to let the woman in the cell next to me prattle on to herself once my guests had long been gone.

"You are the Savior are you not?" Her question was laced with a barb but I cared not to take the bait.

The silence hung between us, as though an unseen force was waiting with baited breath, wondering whom between the two of us was going to last the longest. It was a familiar game to me, one which I remember playing many times as a child, wondering which of my parents was going to break first after I'd started the silent treatment. The old woman was not to win.

"I was there you know, the day you were born...I also saw how you were conceived, child of 'True Love.'" Her tone not even attempting to hide her lack of faith in that claim.

I'd heard the tale fall from my maker's' lips no less than a thousand times in my early life. I knew the story by heart from start to finish; destined couple meets, fall in love and wed and out of the purity of their union of souls a child was conceived. The absurdity of it far to much for any but a child or simpleton to believe.

"It isn't as you've undoubtedly heard or been told... It wasn't the magical power of your parents love that was used to conceive you..."

My eyes stayed close with her continued mutterings, I could not yet muster enough emotion to care for the tales she was to tell, nor the allusions that were about to fall from her lips.

"I know the story goes as love breathing your life into your mother's barren womb, but I was there at your birthing, I touched her womb, I know the truth."

Truth and lies, those two words seemed to always court each other and yet never to blend seamlessly. For the life of me I could not find even the barest of a hint of doubt at her claim. But why would my parents have deceived me? I can't help but hold my breath.

"You weren't to be, your birth was dealt in exchange for a favor."

A favor... How could a single innocent word meant to be an issuance of trust hold so much grief and mortification as an attachment of foreboding intent.

"Your Grandfather wanted a child of pure and noble blood to be on the thrown, and yours would have no contest. The child of a Princely dragon slayer and the King's very own daughter, the line would be both strong and true. Your conception was to be the crowning jewel of his reign, his final dream come to fruition and the assurance that his reign would carry on at least for another generation."

Questions began to mount silently as I dared to not yet even breath let alone move.

"Your mother was born with a barren womb as I said. It mattered not the magical cures, trinkets or potions that were blessed upon her, a child she was never destined to be given. So, born of your Mother's heartbreak and in your Grandfather's self serving desperate need to ensure his lineage he sought out the Dark One..."

"No..." The whispered word escaped faster then I could quell it. Barely more then an exhale, it seemed to echo within my ears.

"The deal was struck: that in exchange for your birth he would be beyond persecution for all of King Leopold's reign, he wanted sanctuary within these lands. The King had gladly accepted the bargain, in one swift movement ensuring his line for at bare minimum two generations. It seemed to the King like a costless deal, he couldn't loose. The Dark One would reside withing his lands protecting him through title alone, for who was stupid enough to take on the land which held the Dark One? And Leopold in turn would be granted a grandchild."

It struck me then as the information began to settle, sitting there amongst the inky darkness, that my birth allowed for my wife's damnation. Had I not been born then the Royals would have assuredly sought The Dark One's binding decades ago. But he was set free to do as he pleased within my birth land, and play the Dark One did. Chaos and heartbreak did fall upon all those either too plagued with greed or far to desperate for their own good. The cost for a bargain with Rumpelstiltskin was never a trivial cost. In fact pain seemed to inevitably follow, somehow strengthening him further with every sinful and damning agreement. Which in all honesty made perfect sense, since my own powers seemed to feed on the more carnal of intentions too. The ill intended convictions felt like a salve just as the most heinous of acts and desires seemed like a breath of fresh air, invigorating in their harrowing intent and cost.

"The trick you see was all in the wording Savior. Never once was it mentioned as to when you were to be conceived. So years did pass and your Grandfather grew old and frail, not long was he destined for this world when it is said you were conceived on a night as dark as death."

I knew this part of her tale, my Mother's solemn telling of my Grandfather's passing only days before my early birth.

"You came early, and you came fast. Far faster than a first birth should. Your Mother, the Queen was touring the near by villages in a show of solidarity and mourning. She'd insisted on the week long pilgrimage with Leopold's body, affording the people of her lands the time to pay their respects." The woman paused then as through catching her breath. "It was there, in the village of Teran that I saw your Mother for the first time. Regally she walked along his casket, clothed in black, one hand resting on the casket and the other upon her expectant stomach. Your Father at her side and duly somber. I was an old woman then, though much younger than I am now, and yet I can still picture what transpired clearly. I can still hear her scream in pain and fear."

I knew my birthing was taxing, my Mother would often joke about the worry I had and would continue to inflict upon her from the very beginning, from birth.

"She had collapsed right before our eyes, her screams echoing along the roadways and buildings. Her hands clutching at her stomach, that's when your Father yelled for the healer."

"For you?" I asked. This new perspective and insight was oddly comforting in the dark, the lightless shadows surrounding me somehow living out the descriptions before my very eyes. Her conversation and tale holding even the whispering voices in my head to silence.

"No, I am no healer." I could hear her head shake, her bindings creaking with the movement.

"But you said you were there, that you..."

She cut me off, "All in due time Savior." Her breathing was ragged now, leading me to wonder exactly how old she was.

"The healer came and could do nothing more than make her slightly less uncomfortable. He was adamant about not moving her and the fact that what was happening went beyond his training. It was then that I was called..."

"You're a mystic?"

"No child, more like a Seer, a clairvoyant." She countered.

"A white witch." To this I heard no response. "I was killing her wasn't I?" I had the answer before I asked it. I was too old to believe otherwise and to stupid to fully believe it on my own.

"Yes, that's when the blue pixie arrived. I could see the battle within the Queen's womb, but I could do nothing about it, though I tried."

It was old magic then... much like my binding, much like my powers. Unbreakable by conventional spells, it required raw and elemental power. Such power flowing leagues deeper and exponentially stronger than modern incanters were capable of harnessing.

"It was then, that the extent of the magic cast upon your Mother was discovered. The Dark One's gift wasn't her first brush with magic."

"She was cursed?" I interrupted.

"With a magic of sorts yes, nothing we did could calm her body's desire to purge itself of your life."

"But who..."

"I don't know, there was so little time to be spared and all of our focus was on saving you and the Queen." Her voice crackling then, "But what I do know is that whomever had threatened your life had gone to great lengths, the power behind the poison required much and the counter was only water from the Black Sea."

"The Sea of Death..." The tales of the Black Sea were legendary, told to the children of the realm as fables to frighten us.

"The very same. Had we waited any longer you would have died in child birth. As it was I knew no other child was in your Mother's future and so the healer removed you. So small and fragile you were as you lay in the Queen's arms. A short while later your Mother requested all to leave save the Fairy, your Father and I. She wanted to see your fate... and truthfully so did I. You were the first and only to survive the kiss of death."

"What did you see?"

"The thing about 'seeing' someone's fate Savior, is that it is nothing as precise and eternal in detail so as to be cast in stone. It can shift, it can change, if the circumstances are right."

"What did you see?" I ask again.

Her tone was somber, "I saw darkness, the waning of the light and a ferocity of love far beyond that of your parents. I saw what is knocking now upon the doors of the allied Kingdoms as you charged head long against it, I saw the battles and wars that have and have not yet passed. I glimpsed at the greed and treachery that lay around you, vipers in their intensity, and I saw death..." She trailed off.

"Her death?" I asked, knowing that had it been foretold I would have found a way to fight it harder.

"No, I saw yours."

"But I did not die..."

"I guess the circumstances were just right for a change in your destiny Savior." She gives cryptically.

"What do you 'see' for me now?"

"Well that all depends on you Savior. Are you to be whom you were born to be or what your powers make you?"

"I don't know the difference..."

"Then you know all that I do."

She didn't say anything more, there seemed to not be a need to. Sitting there among the black walls I could do nothing more than let her words seep in. Who did I want to be? Who was I meant to be? And more importantly, what within me had and could still survive the madness I now embraced and thrived upon?

##

Thanks,

Frigid


End file.
